In pics, Vietnamese home-made anti-ship missile X35 unveiled in a TV news

In a television news of QPVN - a TV channel of Vietnam's Defense Ministry on March 1st, 2018, Vietnam unveiled its domestically made anti-ship misile called X35.

The 3M24 or X35 anti-ship missile (export variant called 3M24E or X-35E) is a subsonic cruise missile developed by KTRV and produced with variants for aircraft, helicopters, floating ships (Uranium / Uranium-E) and the Bal / Bal-E Coastal Missile System.

The X-35E anti-ship missile has a range of 130 km to destroy missiles, torpedoes, artillery, ships up to 5,000 tons and ocean liners. Russia has developed an improved version of the X35-UE that is 2-2.5 times more powerful than the X-35E and has a range of 260 km, twice more than the X-35E.

Nowaday, Vietnam produces this kind of missiles itshelf with the suport of Russian technology.

Another variant of this type of missile is the KCT-15, which is also manufactured by Vietnam.

Putin showed in the video a nuclear strike on the US

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday used a concept video of unlimited range nuclear warheads apparently raining down on Florida.

Putin boasted about the Kremlin's resurgent military might during his annual address to his nation's Parliament, hyping weaponry that he said would render NATO defenses "completely useless."

He drew repeated applause with animation-backed claims of nuclear-capable weapons that elude air-defense systems and "invincible" missiles that travel at hypersonic speed.

"Any use of nuclear weapons against Russia or its allies, any kind of attack, will be regarded as a nuclear attack against Russia, and in response, we will take action instantaneously no matter what the consequences are," Putin said. "Nobody should have any doubt about that."

Putin, who is up for re-election March 18, used Thursday's speech to showcase his country's strides in military technology.

"Russia still has the greatest nuclear potential in the world, but nobody listened to us," he said. "Listen now."

To drive home his point, Putin spoke as a video showed multiple nuclear warheads streaking through space before showering down on what appears to be the outline of the state of Florida.

"But even this is not the end," Putin said. "We've developed new strategic weapons that don't use ballistic trajectory at all, which means that missile defense will be useless against it."

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters that Putin's remarks confirmed what the United States has long known: "Russia has been developing destabilizing weapons systems for over a decade, in direct violation of its treaty obligations," she said.

"President Trump understands the threats facing America and our allies in this century and is determined to protect our homeland and preserve peace through strength," she added. "US defense capabilities are and will remain second to none."

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said department officials watched Putin's speech with interest.

"It was certainly unfortunate to have watched the video animation that depicted a nuclear attack on the United States," she said. "That's certainly something that we did not enjoy watching. We don't regard that as the behavior of a responsible international player."

CNN national security analyst Samantha Vinograd said Putin's braggadocio was meant to rile up Trump, whose presidency has been marred by investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
"I do think Vladimir Putin was speaking to one audience," she said. "It wasn't anyone in Russia. It was Donald Trump."

"He was trying to get the President distracted from anything that Trump may be doing to hold Russia accountable for the ongoing attack on the United States," she said. "The President's inaction makes Vladimir Putin think, 'Why wouldn't I say all this? Why wouldn't I show that I can violate treaties and laws and talk about strategic attacks all around the world?' Vladimir Putin has no reason to feel constrained in any way." - CNN

Vietnam's navy equipped with the latest Israeli reconnaissance aircraft

At the 2018 Navy Training Corps of the 954th Air Force Brigade, a very modern Israeli-style reconnaissance aircraft has appeared.

The image shows the presence of an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft that is known as Israel's Orbiter 2.

In 2014, the Flight Globe magazine said that Vietnam had ordered Israel's Orbiter 2 drone system for use in airborne surveillance missions for artillery arms.

According to the product catalog of Aeronautics Defense Systems (Israel) - maker of Orbiter 2 unmanned aerial vehicles, this modern airborne scout unit has a length of 1m, wingspan of 3m, takeoff weight is 9.5kg.

Just two people are enough to operate all the features and can be deployed manually or on a mobile transportation.

In terms of technical characteristics - Orbiter 2 has a flight altitude of 500 - 600m, the largest flight ceiling is 5,400m, the range of operation 80km, the speed of flight from 55 to 130 km / h, flight time max is 4 hours.

Orbiter 2 was launched by launcher and recovered by parachute launch.

These unmanned aerial reconnaissance aircraft are capable of self-guided flight and remain operational even when GPS (Global Positioning System) interferes with or interruption of communication.

Why a First US Aircraft Carrier Vietnam Visit Matters

A closer look at the broader significance behind a much-anticipated development.

In the next few days, a U.S. aircraft carrier will make a port call in Vietnam’s coastal city of Danang for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War. Though the move has long been in the works and is just a single engagement, it nonetheless bears noting given its significance for U.S.-Vietnam ties, U.S. defense policy, as well as the region more broadly.

The idea of a U.S. aircraft carrier visit to Vietnam has been in the works since last year and first surfaced publicly in the context of the meeting between Vietnam’s Defense Minister Ngo Xuan Lich and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in August 2017. Both sides have since been finalized details over several subsequent meetings and have been keeping specifics close to the chest. Before the sensationalist headlines tied to the expected visit of the USS Carl Vinson roll in, it is important to understand the broader significance of the visit on three fronts.

First, it is yet another in a series of boosts within the context of the U.S.-Vietnam bilateral defense ties which, for all their limits, have been on the uptick over the past few years as I’ve observed repeatedly. Though several other U.S. vessels have already visited Vietnam and both sides continue to work to expand efforts in this realm under a Trump presidency, an aircraft carrier is obviously a much bigger visible symbol of demonstration of American presence within the context of the relationship.

Within that context, the visit should be understood as not just a one-off event but part of a gradual integration of U.S. aircraft carriers in the relationship. Last October, Vietnam Deputy Defense Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh became the highest ranking Vietnamese official to embark on a U.S. aircraft carrier when he boarded the USS Carl Vinson. And just a few days back, Vietnam’s Ambassador to the United States Pham Quang Vinh was given a tour of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush as part of a two-day official visit to Norfolk, Virginia. Vietnam’s hosting of a U.S. carrier would no doubt be a further step forward in this regard and would be testament to Hanoi’s growing comfort in hosting U.S. vessels as well as its increasing role in supporting U.S. efforts in the broader context of the Asia-Pacific.

Second, the aircraft carrier visit is significant in the context of U.S. regional defense strategy. As noted earlier, aircraft carriers are a way for Washington to reinforce the longstanding reality of a robust U.S. regional presence, which is particularly important in the face of anxieties over Chinese maritime assertiveness. Indeed, it is no coincidence that the Vietnam visit is part of a broader voyage for the USS Carl Vinson strike group that also included a stop in the Philippines amid other engagements that have also involved the key Southeast Asian claimants in the South China Sea disputes (for instance, the US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer was also in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia for a port visit last week).

More broadly, the visit also spotlights the role of the USS Carl Vinson itself in the context of U.S. defense planning. As Washington has wrestled with the greater operational burdens for its vessels and looked for ways to manage that growing stress – as evidenced by the recent accidents and delays facing the Seventh Fleet – one of the solutions has been the greater involvement of the Third Fleet in the Western Pacific under the Third Fleet Forward initiative since 2016, which affords greater flexibility for operations including those designed to demonstrate U.S. presence. The Carl Vinson strike group is a tangible demonstration of Third Fleet Forward, carrying out its first deployment under that banner last year, and now on its second which officially kicked off last month.

Third and finally, beyond just the United States and Vietnam, the visit also bears significance in terms of the regional context as well. As I have detailed before, there remains palpable anxiety in key Southeast Asian capitals that 2018 could see some more provocative moves by China in the South China Sea after a year where there was some relative easing of tensions. There certainly is a case for this based on various factors, including the fact that China has moved past a year of domestic consolidation with the Party Congress last year and the Trump administration is set to follow through with a tougher line on China this year on several fronts that could lead Beijing to retaliate in turn.

In that context, the carrier visit is significant not only because it reinforces Washington’s current determination on the South China Sea issue, but also because such moves leave open the future possibility that it Beijing might seize on them as a pretext for rolling out moves it already had planned on doing anyway as it has been fond of doing in the past. As is often the case in the South China Sea as with international relations more broadly, though some aspects of the significance of a single event are often clear at the outset, others become more evident in relation to others that occur thereafter.

The Diplomat

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China to develop its first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier

MELBOURNE, Australia — One of China’s largest shipbuilders has revealed plans to speed up the development of China’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, as part of China’s ambition to transform its navy into a blue-water force by the middle of the next decade.

The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning arrives in Hong Kong waters on July 7, 2017, less than a week after a high-profile visit by president Xi Jinping. (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)

In a since-amended news release outlining the company’s future strategic direction in all of its business areas, the state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, or CSIC, said the shipbuilding group will redouble efforts to achieve technological breakthroughs in nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, new nuclear-powered submarines, quieter conventionally powered submarines, underwater artificial intelligence-based combat systems and integrated networked communications systems.

CSIC is responsible for both civilian and military shipbuilding activities in the north and the west of China.

The company release added that these breakthroughs are required for China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy, or PLAN, to enhance its capability to globally operate in line with the service’s aim to become a networked, blue-water navy by 2025.

The original news release, which Defense News has seen and translated, has since been deleted from CSIC’s website and replaced by one missing all references to the details listed above. The updated release instead merely notes that the company “must resolutely implement (Chinese President) Xi Jinping’s thinking on strengthening our armed forces and take the building of a modern warfare system with Chinese characteristics as a guide to speed up breakthroughs in key core technologies.”

Chinese J-15 fighter jets are launched from the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier during military drills in the South China Sea on Jan. 2, 2017. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

CSIC was responsible for the refurbishment of China’s sole operational aircraft carrier, which was originally laid down as the Soviet Union’s Admiral Kuznetsov-class carrier Varyag. The hulk was acquired from Ukraine in the late 1990s and entered service with the PLAN in 2012 as the Liaoning.

The company is also building China’s first indigenously built aircraft carrier, a slightly modified version of the Liaoning featuring various improvements. The ship is currently being fitted out at CSIC’s shipyard in Dalian, where the Liaoning was refurbished.

China is also reportedly planning a larger, conventionally powered aircraft carrier that will be equipped with electromagnetic catapults to launch aircraft, having previously claimed that it has made a breakthrough that will see the ship generating sufficient power to operate the power-hungry catapults.

The PLAN is already operating a pair of catapults — one believed to be steam-driven while the other an electromagnetic catapult — for carrier operations training at its air base in Liaoning Province where its Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark carrier-borne fighters are based.

The PLAN’s current aircraft carriers can only launch aircraft using ski-jumps, which restrict their ability to operate aircraft such as turboprop-powered airborne early warning aircraft.

That particular aircraft’s engines are unable to generate sufficient thrust to take off from an aircraft carrier without catapults, instead relying on lower-flying helicopters fitted with radars for the carrier-borne early warning mission. This in turn limits the PLAN’s carrier battle groups’ effectiveness in the fleet’s defense mission.

Collin Koh, a research fellow at the Maritime Security Programme of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told Defense News that a Chinese nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will facilitate the continued increase in China’a naval presence, with its longer endurance compared to conventionally powered aircraft carriers allowing longer “out of area” operations in distant waters such as the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean.

It will also allow the PLAN to respond faster to contingencies, such as showing presence at regional hot spots, or humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations. Koh cited the U.S. Navy’s use of an aircraft carrier during relief efforts following the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

He added that the PLAN will benefit from its experience with operating nuclear-powered submarines if or when it introduces nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, despite the possibility of initial complications regarding logistics and infrastructure to support nuclear-powered surface vessels. - Defense News

China’s military flexes muscles for domestic objective: more funding

With stealth jets entering service, leaked pictures of new high-tech naval artillery and proud reports of manoeuvres, China’s armed forces are putting on a show of power as they lobby for greater defence spending

China’s defence spending is only about one-quarter that of the United States, if official figures are accurate. Photo: Reuters

Beijing: With stealth jets entering service, leaked pictures of new high-tech naval artillery and proud reports of manoeuvres that “dare to shine the sword,” China’s armed forces are putting on a show of power as they lobby for greater defence spending.

Although it is the world’s largest military, the People’s Liberation Army has been privately unhappy that it got less than double-digit funding increases the past two years. It has recently been making the case that it needs more money to deal with increased global uncertainty, diplomats and several people with ties to the armed forces say.

In the run-up to the defence budget’s release at the annual meeting of China’s parliament next week, state media outlets have been filled with coverage of military drills, advanced new equipment and thrilling tales of derring-do in a new film very loosely based on China’s evacuating people from Yemen’s civil war in 2015.

The overall message is clear: China faces serious challenges, from US President Donald Trump’s threats of force against nuclear-armed North Korea to an increasingly tense border dispute with India and what Beijing sees as efforts by self-ruled Taiwan to assert its sovereignty.

Confronting those challenges requires cash, a point the military is now trying to drive home.

“If you keep telling your people China is facing all these threats, you have to be able to back it up to show you are spending enough,” said a senior Beijing-based Western diplomat.

President Xi Jinping promised in his keynote speech to the Communist Party Congress in October to make China’s armed forces world-class by the middle of the century. The military has deployed an increasingly sophisticated propaganda machine to make sure that promise stays top of mind.

A professionally shot air force video released to celebrate the Lunar New Year this month entitled “New fighters of the great power to safeguard the new era” led with footage of the latest fighter to enter service, the J-20 stealth jet, designed as a counterpart to the radar-evading the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.

“It looks like they are making the case for a large rise in defence spending,” said an Asian diplomat, speaking of the recent uptick in military-related stories in China.

Nervous neighbours

China’s defence spending is only about one-quarter that of the United States, if official figures are accurate. China has repeatedly said that it has no hostile intent, that its military is for defensive missions, and that defence spending is transparent.

Many of the country’s neighbours beg to differ, calling out what they see as Chinese sabre-rattling as it ramps up drills in the region.

Vietnam, one of the most vocal opponents of China’s South China Sea claims, has tightened its military relationship with the United States. Taiwan has pledged to grow defence spending, and wants to buy new, advanced US equipment.

The official People’s Liberation Army Daily said this month that although China was committed to a defensive military policy, it had to “dare to shine the sword” with air patrols far from China’s coast, whether close to Taiwan or over uninhabited islets disputed with Japan in the East China Sea.

Such flights, it said, protected China’s “bottom line” on strategic issues.

One person with ties to the military said another pressing area for more spending was salaries, which have not kept up with those of private-sector workers.

“Simply relying on ‘the great Xi to lead us to victory’ won’t cut it,” the person said, referring to efforts to recruit the best and the brightest into the military by appealing to national pride.

Between the lines

The defence budget will only disclose a top-line number, with a percentage comparison to the previous year. No breakdown on spending is provided.

Last year, China’s parliament did not initially release the figure, sparking questions over transparency. But when it did, the budget increase was 7%, the smallest in more than a decade.

The budgeted increase of 7.6% for 2016 was the lowest in six years and the first single-digit rise since 2010, following a nearly unbroken two-decade run of double-digit increases.

Experts say the true figure is likely much higher than what is officially reported, with money for some military projects included in ostensibly non-military spending.

“Particularly given China’s civil-military integration, it is difficult to know where defence spending ends” and civilian research and development begins, said another Western diplomat, who analyses China’s military.

Some defence experts say that China is eroding the United States’ military technology dominance and that the People’s Liberation Army could surpass the US military in artificial intelligence capabilities, which have become a spending priority for Beijing.

But in the absence of transparency about new technologies, such as an experimental electromagnetic railgun state media suggested this year was being tested aboard a Chinese warship, there is scepticism about their combat readiness.

China has not fought a war since 1979, a brief invasion of Vietnam that ended badly for China.

China’s defence ministry declined to comment ahead of the figure being released by parliament. The general percentage rise is typically given the day before parliament opens, and the raw figure the next day. Parliament opens 5 March. Reuters